Aloooooooha! Surf’s up, Pacifics! My name is Erica and it’s hard to believe I’m writing on this blog, let alone starting the MBA program here at MIT Sloan as a proud member of the Class of 2016. It feels like it was just yesterday, December 20: I was sick in bed re-watching the entirety of Gossip Girl on Netflix, and got MIT’s call at 8:46AM to say, “You’re in!”

In future posts, you can expect to read a fair bit about my ambitions after Sloan, but since we’re in orientation, I’m going to keep things light and bright. We’re just getting to know each other, after all.

Having spent the past two years in Boston and the rest of my life on the east coast in the great state of New Jersey, it’s a pleasure and privilege to be part of the Pacific Ocean cohort and on the Petrel Core Team—even if I’m still trying to find a way to explain to others what a petrel is. My current description is “dirty-looking seagull with a stunted flamingo beak.” Thoughts?

Photo attribution: “Giant petrel with chicks” by Brocken Inaglory

For family, friends, and prospective students: Sloan divides the entering class (about 400 students) into 6 cohorts, ”Oceans,” and divides us into six to seven member Core Teams within those Oceans. The compositions of the Core Teams and the Oceans are intended to reflect the diversity of the class as a whole. Taking Team Petrel as an example: half of us are international, half of us are female, and all of us are coming from different companies with different types of experience.

Our 6th member is camera-shy, but aren’t we cute?

The Core Teams at Sloan are as much our study groups as our first-semester families. Much like a real family, I expect we’ll love one another and struggle with one another as we work together through the fall term. My plan to combat our semester stress? Shaking it out and taking more silly pictures like this one:

Catching waves, flying high

As for why the teams are named after birds? Your guess is as good as mine.